milkyspit
Flashlight Enthusiast
Lately I've fallen into the habit of spending more time building, and less time posting the builds... and while I do have literally hundreds of photos of various things, it won't do a soul any good if they don't eventually make there way to CPF! Sorry about that, folks. 
This particular build uses the fairly new Luxeon Rebel-100 emitters, which generate an average of 100 lumens at 350mA drive current and heatsink particularly well, as shown in testing by fellow CPFer JTR1962. These emitters make possible some builds thatr previously wouldn't have physically been possible to pull off... and while the unbelievably tiny size of the emitters themselves makes them tough to work with, just couldn't resist trying to shoehorn a full-blown 7-emitter build, usually reserved for something like a Maglite or SureFire KT4 Turbohead, into the much smaller KL2 head!oo:
Did I mention these Rebels are incredibly tough to work with? :sigh:
After destroying several emitters and in the process discovering all sorts of strange and amazing ways to render them unusable, I finally (knock on wood!) seem to have completed the first M963-KL2, dubbed 'REBELLiON' (pronounced ree-bell-yun, with weird pronunciation of the letter 'i' because it just looked plain cool) plus had a chance to runtime test and take some photos.
IT'S ALIVE! :naughty:
The head incorporates 7x Luxeon Rebel-100 emitters arranged in an array of McR10-R reflectors, with dual-redundant regulation circuitry, all resulting in what hopefully will prove to be a robust platform capable of generating 963 lumens continuous over the course of its runtime. This one does run on a single rechargeable, such as 18650 or AW-C cell, and even 2x123 primaries... just how long it stays in regulation is an open issue... I can say it does at least start out in full regulation though.
As this one comes pretty early in the game as far as building with the Rebel emitters, please excuse the poor centering under reflector array. You have no idea what a challenge these little guys are to mount, and not short-out, and get perfectly positioned for a 7-emitter reflector array, and get heatsinked properly... anyway, the reflectors themselves are plenty forgiving of minor positioning errors and the beam doesn't seem to suffer at all.
:sweat:
On 2x18650 cells, a little magic happens... lo and behold, the thing is Project-M compliant!
The dual-redundant circuitry means at least 3x emitters will continue to run despite any single failure to circuitry or emitters... and as a side benefit, the system also operates as an early warning of an impending dead battery... as the cells weaken, 4x emitters will flicker a bit then shutdown toward the tail end of runtime, leaving 3x emitters operating and yielding a visible diminishment of light, yet still plenty bright for normal use... then the remaining 3x emitters will flicker a bit... then dim noticeably... and finally, continue to run at emergency lighting brightness for as long as the cells can support it. With protected cells, the protection circuitry would probably shutdown the system before this point... with primary 123 cells or unprotected cells, the system would continue to run until the bitter end.
One more subtle benefit to the combination of KL2 head and Project-M compliance at the M963 drive level is the ability to combine pieces for a combination of size and output that flat-out wasn't achievable before. With apologies for the exceptionally grainy photo, note the length of the Leef prototype parts relative to the Milky L1, a 1x123 light...
Output is surprisingly good... the beam is similar to that of a SureFire L4, but several times more intense. The photos may not show it well, but this thing can throw perhaps farther than one might imagine while generating a big, intense wall of light...
That's about it for now! Not the best post, perhaps, but hope it at least gives some idea of what this little monster is all about. Thanks for reading!
This particular build uses the fairly new Luxeon Rebel-100 emitters, which generate an average of 100 lumens at 350mA drive current and heatsink particularly well, as shown in testing by fellow CPFer JTR1962. These emitters make possible some builds thatr previously wouldn't have physically been possible to pull off... and while the unbelievably tiny size of the emitters themselves makes them tough to work with, just couldn't resist trying to shoehorn a full-blown 7-emitter build, usually reserved for something like a Maglite or SureFire KT4 Turbohead, into the much smaller KL2 head!
oo:Did I mention these Rebels are incredibly tough to work with? :sigh:
After destroying several emitters and in the process discovering all sorts of strange and amazing ways to render them unusable, I finally (knock on wood!) seem to have completed the first M963-KL2, dubbed 'REBELLiON' (pronounced ree-bell-yun, with weird pronunciation of the letter 'i' because it just looked plain cool)
plus had a chance to runtime test and take some photos.IT'S ALIVE! :naughty:
The head incorporates 7x Luxeon Rebel-100 emitters arranged in an array of McR10-R reflectors, with dual-redundant regulation circuitry, all resulting in what hopefully will prove to be a robust platform capable of generating 963 lumens continuous over the course of its runtime. This one does run on a single rechargeable, such as 18650 or AW-C cell, and even 2x123 primaries... just how long it stays in regulation is an open issue... I can say it does at least start out in full regulation though.
As this one comes pretty early in the game as far as building with the Rebel emitters, please excuse the poor centering under reflector array. You have no idea what a challenge these little guys are to mount, and not short-out, and get perfectly positioned for a 7-emitter reflector array, and get heatsinked properly... anyway, the reflectors themselves are plenty forgiving of minor positioning errors and the beam doesn't seem to suffer at all.
:sweat:
On 2x18650 cells, a little magic happens... lo and behold, the thing is Project-M compliant!
The dual-redundant circuitry means at least 3x emitters will continue to run despite any single failure to circuitry or emitters... and as a side benefit, the system also operates as an early warning of an impending dead battery... as the cells weaken, 4x emitters will flicker a bit then shutdown toward the tail end of runtime, leaving 3x emitters operating and yielding a visible diminishment of light, yet still plenty bright for normal use... then the remaining 3x emitters will flicker a bit... then dim noticeably... and finally, continue to run at emergency lighting brightness for as long as the cells can support it. With protected cells, the protection circuitry would probably shutdown the system before this point... with primary 123 cells or unprotected cells, the system would continue to run until the bitter end.
One more subtle benefit to the combination of KL2 head and Project-M compliance at the M963 drive level is the ability to combine pieces for a combination of size and output that flat-out wasn't achievable before. With apologies for the exceptionally grainy photo, note the length of the Leef prototype parts relative to the Milky L1, a 1x123 light...
Output is surprisingly good... the beam is similar to that of a SureFire L4, but several times more intense. The photos may not show it well, but this thing can throw perhaps farther than one might imagine while generating a big, intense wall of light...
That's about it for now! Not the best post, perhaps, but hope it at least gives some idea of what this little monster is all about. Thanks for reading!
